Puppe's rule--a literature review

As early as 1903, it was pointed out by Puppe that it is possible to determine the sequence of injuries in skull fractures caused by blows to the head: the second fracture ends at the point where a break in cohesion is already present. This finding was confirmed by tests carried out by other forensic pathologists. It soon became clear that the rule also applies to gunshot fractures. In the case of gunshot injuries, it is even possible to make more detailed statements. However, the applicability of Puppe's rule is limited by incomplete ossification or ossification disorders. The priority rule is also found in English-language literature, but without the name of the author who first described it.     

„Selbstbewusst“ und „stolz“. Das außenpolitische Vokabular der Berliner Republik als Fährte einer Neuorientierung

The article sketches a newly developed analytical approach (“vocabulary analysis”) inspired by philosophy of language. Without engaging in the debate as to whether Germany’s foreign policy is best characterised either in terms of continuity or change, the article reconstructs the development of the German foreign policy practice between 1986 and 2002 on the basis of the foreign policy elite’s discourse. In an exemplary fashion it illustrates the use of the key concepts Germany, Europe, power, responsibility, self-confidence and pride. We conclude that vocabulary analysis reveals astonishing shifts in the semantic web of which German foreign policy discourse is “woven” — shifts which will also leave traces in Germany’s foreign policy identity.     

Rights of Non‐humans? Electronic Agents and Animals as New Actors in Politics and Law

Personification of non-humans is best understood as a strategy of dealing with the uncertainty about the identity of the other, which moves the attribution scheme from causation to double contingency and opens the space for presupposing the others' self-referentiality. But there is no compelling reason to restrict the attribution of action exclusively to humans and to social systems, as Luhmann argues. Personifying other non-humans is a social reality today and a political necessity for the future. The admission of actors does not take place, as Latour suggests, into one and only one collective. Rather, the properties of new actors differ extremely according to the multiplicity of different sites of the political ecology.     

Monetary policy and overinvestment in East Asia and Europe

The paper analyzes the role of monetary policy for cyclical movements of investment and asset markets in East Asia and Europe based on a Mises-Hayek overinvestment framework. It is shown how the gradual global decline of interest rates has triggered wandering overinvestment cycles in Japan, Southeast Asia, and China. Similarly, it is shown how a one-size monetary policy within the European Monetary Union has not preserved the European Monetary Union from idiosyncratic economic development and crisis because of uncoordinated fiscal policies. With monetary policy crisis management being argued to impede financial and economic restructuring, a timely exit from ultra-expansionary monetary policies is recommended for both East Asia and Europe to reconstitute economic stability and growth.     

Suicide by Close-Range Gunshot Wound to the Bridge of the Nose

Suicidal gunshot wounds to the nasal bridge are rare, particularly at close range (defined as muzzle of the weapon not touching the skin surface, but near enough to deposit soot and stippling). Previously reported suicidal gunshot wounds to the nose have been through the left nostril (Forensic Sci Int 1995;71(1):25–31; J Forensic Radiol Imag 2013;1(2):63–7). The death of a 26-year-old man with a close-range gunshot wound to the bridge of the nose was deemed suicide due to history, scene, and autopsy findings. These findings included previous suicidal ideation, texted and written notes, the decedent's cross-legged position seated on the floor, the trajectory of the bullet through his head and into the ceiling fan and roof above him, and acute alcohol intoxication. This decedent may have been intending a hard contact forehead location but inadvertently fired the gun into the bridge of his nose while bending forward, prior to contact.     

Justice Under Global Capitalism?

Under conditions of polycentric globalisation, a positive concept of justice is definitively impossible. Justice is aimed at removing unjust situations, not creating just ones. The justice of fundamental rights coerces expansive social systems into self-restriction. Human rights in particular take the role of counter-principles to communicative violations of body and soul, a protest against inhumanities of communication, without it ever being possible to say positively what the conditions of humanly just communication might be. The article analyses some consequences of this view for social counter-movements and counter-institutions.

Tardieu's spots and asphyxia--a literature study

Subpleural, epicardial and pericranial ecchymoses have been described in cases of suffocation since the 18th century. In the 19th century, great diagnostic importance was attributed to ecchymoses. Tardieu was the most determined defender of the specificity of ecchymoses for suffocations. He thought that he could diagnose violent suffocation by means of ecchymoses and claimed that he was able to differentiate violent suffocation from other unnatural causes of death (hanging, choking, strangulation, and drowning). Other physicians, among them numerous German medical examiners, proved Tardieu's opinions wrong by means of observations and animal studies. The most dedicated disputant against Tardieu's false doctrines was Liman. According to today's knowledge of pathophysiology, the haemorrhages concerned cannot have a specificity for suffocation or even a specific form of suffocation. Therefore, the confusing term of "suffocation haemorrages" should be avoided.